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Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 20(5)

New Caledonia–Australian connections: biogeographic patterns and geology

Pauline Y. Ladiges A C and David Cantrill B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.

B National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra, Vic. 3141, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: p.ladiges@unimelb.edu.au

Australian Systematic Botany 20(5) 383-389 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB07018
Submitted: 1 May 2007  Accepted: 18 August 2007   Published: 8 November 2007

Abstract

A review is presented of current knowledge of the tectonic rifting of eastern Gondwana in the context of possible land continuity between Australia and New Caledonia and the dating of events. Comment is made on the level of endemicity of the modern-day biota of New Caledonia, with examples of phylogenetic analyses, biogeographic patterns and estimated divergence dates among particular taxa, including birds (kagu-sunbittern clade), Nothofagus and Myrtaceae. The geological history of the region is complex but there is evidence of land persisting into the Cenozoic (Paleocene/Eocene) that possibly allowed old biota to persist. Vicariance explanations of divergences cannot be justifiably dismissed in favour of long-distance, over-water dispersal for such taxa.


Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Gareth Nelson and Dr Michael Bayly for helpful discussion, and the organisers of the Southern Connections Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, January 2007, for the invitation to present in the symposium ‘Goodbye Gondwana’. Dr Neville Exon (Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, Australian National University) provided incisive comments on the manuscript and additional references.


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